Las Vegas — GOP candidate Mitt Romney — boosted by a strong campaign operation and the backing of a significant Mormon electorate — continued to march steadily toward the Republican presidential nomination Saturday with a projected robust win in the “First in the West” Nevada caucuses.

The former Massachusetts governor was expected to coast to victory and handily defeat both Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who battled for second place, according to CNN entrance polls and early returns.

Romney — who has struggled to win over conservative voters — won 51 percent of voters who described themselves as “very conservative” and a plurality of those who described themselves a “strongly supportive of the Tea Party movement,” according to the surveys.

Holding up a full vote count was Nevada GOP officials’ unusual decision to release only partial results of the vote at 5 p.m. — even as some voters in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and 70 percent of the state’s residents, were still caucusing.

But in a move that suggested that Romney will continue to take heat in an unusually caustic primary campaign, Gingrich tried to steal the spotlight from the Nevada winner. The former House speaker scheduled an hour-long news conference to discuss a new strategy for his campaign at precisely the hour Romney was expected to deliver his victory speech.

Paul, meanwhile, waged an aggressive Silver State campaign fueled by hundreds of young volunteers hoping to boost his delegate count in Nevada, which awards delegates on a proportional basis. Former Pennsylvania Rep. Rick Santorum, who barely campaigned here, was predicted to finish fourth.

The Silver State victory by Romney came as no surprise, with most polls showing him with a double digit lead in Nevada, where he already enjoyed a solid organizational advantage after racking up 51 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential primary. Then, he won 95 percent of the vote from his fellow Mormons. On Saturday, Romney won 91 percent, according to entrance polls.

Less than 50,000 Nevadans out of 2.7 million residents were expected to participate in Saturday’s caucuses. Critics said scheduling and organizational decisions by the Nevada GOP reduced the participation of younger voters and blue collar workers from one of the state’s lifeblood industries, tourism.

In Clark County, the caucus sessions were scheduled at 9 a.m. on Saturday — a peak work time for the state’s 300,000 service workers. Moreover, not a single caucus session was scheduled on the Las Vegas strip, where thousands worked extra hours during the Super Bowl weekend crush.

At precinct meetings observed by Chronicle reporters, the sessions uniformly drew voters that were overwhelmingly white and over 50.

In the entire state, just one evening caucus session was planned, state GOP officials said, for “religious” voters in Las Vegas. But party members confirmed that 7 p.m. meeting at the Adelson Educational Center was specifically to accommodate billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a devout Jew who was observing the Sabbath on Saturday morning when the regular sessions were held. Adelson donated $5 million to Winning Our Future, a political action committee in support of Gingrich, as did his wife, Miriam.

Hundreds of people showed up to participate at the Adelson caucus Saturday night, but police were called to handle voters who protested being required to sign a declaration that they didn’t vote earlier “because of my religious beliefs.” Several said such a declaration amounted to a religious test for voting.

“I was turned away because I’m not of their Jewish faith,” said Michael DiCicco, 23, of Henderson.

Nevada did not see the kind of bruising, multi-million dollar ad war that the preceding contest in Florida did. Romney’s campaign spent $370,000 in Nevada, while and Paul spent $350,000. Their two other challengers barely competed on the airwaves.

Nevertheless, Romney’s support was strong among the estimated 2,000 people who attended 26 caucuses held at Palo Verde High School in a well-to-do neighborhood on the west side of Las Vegas. Roughly a quarter of those who attended were believed to be Mormons, according to several church members and those running the caucus.

Before ballots were cast, Charlene Sher stood in front of her fellow caucus-goers and said she was ready to vote for Romney but concerned about his ties to the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs. Several Republicans in the crowd assured her that was more of a problem for President Obama than Romney.

In fact, people associated with the firm have given eight times more money to Romney than to Obama — $496,400 versus $64,200, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. “No other organization has given more to Romney’s presidential campaign,” according to the center.

Still, Sher voted for Romney.

“Is he perfect? No. But Obama is faaaaaar from perfect,” said Sher, 65.

Syd James, a 56-year-old physician and Mormon, said his vote for Romney was “not a religious vote. He just brings more to the table. He has a very, very strong moral background.”